On May 3, 2013, the FDA approved a Big Pharma Cartel founding member Merck drug Liptruzet. Liptruzet is a combination drug of Zetia and Lipitor. I wrote to you about the failure of Zetia in three separate blog posts. They can all be found by clicking here: http://blog.drbrownstein.com/?s=zetia.
Zetia is a failed drug. It should never be prescribed and should have been pulled from the market years ago. There is no excuse for any doctor prescribing Zetia for any condition. Zetia works by blocking cholesterol absorption in the gut. Conventional doctors believe that drug therapies that lower cholesterol levels reduce the risk of heart disease. However, Zetia, which has been around for over 10 years, has never been shown to lower the risk of developing a heart attack or stroke. Furthermore, Zetia has never been shown to prolong life.
Why the FDA would approve this combination of Zetia and Lipitor is beyond belief. The previous combination of Zetia and Zocor, known as Vytorin, was proven to be a colossal failure in multiple studies—see my previous blog posts.
FDA’s action is a perfect example of why we spend more money on health care than any other people on the planet. Liptruzet will cost $5.50 per pill. This means a patient prescribed Liptruzet will spend over $2,000.00 per year on a worthless drug that will be associated with side effects such as muscle aches and pains, memory loss, and neurological disorders. We take too many ineffective drugs that are too expensive. Do all of these drugs translate into better healthcare outcomes? Heck no. As compared to every other wealthy Western country, we finish last or near the bottom on every single health indicator. In Liptruzet’s case, there is no justifiable reason for the FDA to approve it. This is another example, amongst many, of why the FDA should be disbanded. The FDA gives false credibility to Big Pharma.
If you are on Zetia, I suggest talking to your doctor about stopping it. Ask him/her for any studies showing a clinical benefit such as a significantly lowered risk for heart disease, heart attack, stroke, or increased longevity. I can assure you that you won’t be getting any articles from your doctor since they don’t exist. More information about cholesterol-lowering medications can be found in my book, Drugs That Don’t Work and Natural Therapies That Do. =======================================================Read the complete article here.
In response to repeated legal threats, a public health doctor in Italy has withdrawn advice to curtail use of a controversial drug. The drug, ezetimibe, is a key ingredient in Zetia and Vytorin, which is manufactured by MerckMerck. The cholesterol-lowering drug has been the subject of fierce controversy because it has never been shown to improve clinical outcomes. Despite the controversy, in 2013 the drugs had combined sales of more than $2.6 billion.
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Read the complete article here.
If you’re one of the millions of Americans who take statins to prevent heart
disease, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has important new safety
information on these cholesterol-lowering medications.
FDA is advising consumers and health care professionals that:
Routine monitoring of liver enzymes in the blood, once considered standard
procedure for statin users, is no longer needed. Such monitoring has not been
found to be effective in predicting or preventing the rare occurrences of
serious liver injury associated with statin use.
Cognitive (brain-related) impairment, such as memory loss, forgetfulness and
confusion, has been reported by some statin users.
People being treated with statins may have an increased risk of raised blood
sugar levels and the development of Type 2 diabetes.
Some medications interact with lovastatin (brand names include Mevacor) and
can increase the risk of muscle damage.
This new information should not scare people off statins, says Amy G. Egan,
M.D., M.P.H., deputy director for safety in FDA’s Division of Metabolism and
Endocrinology Products (DMEP). “The value of statins in preventing heart disease
has been clearly established,” she says. “Their benefit is indisputable, but
they need to be taken with care and knowledge of their side effects.”
FDA will be changing the drug labels of popular statin products to reflect
these new concerns. (These labels are not the sticker attached to a prescription
drug bottle, but the package insert with details about a prescription
medication, including side effects.)
The statins affected include:
Altoprev (lovastatin extended-release)
Crestor (rosuvastatin)
Lescol (fluvastatin)
Lipitor (atorvastatin)
Livalo (pitavastatin)
Mevacor (lovastatin)
Pravachol (pravastatin)
Zocor (simvastatin).
Products containing statins in combination with other drugs include:
Advicor (lovastatin/niacin extended-release)
Simcor (simvastatin/niacin extended-release)
Vytorin (simvastatin/ezetimibe).
Liver Injury Called Rare
FDA has found that liver injury associated with statin use is rare but can
occur. Patients are advised to consult their health care professional if they
have symptoms that include unusual fatigue, loss of appetite, right upper
abdominal discomfort, dark urine or yellowing of the skin or whites of the
eyes.
Statins work in the liver to reduce the production of cholesterol, a waxy
substance that can form plaque on the walls of the arteries and keep the heart
from getting the blood it needs.
Egan explains that there had been signals in early clinical trials of
possible liver damage tied to statin use, so health care professionals were
advised to regularly test their patients’ liver enzyme levels. However, she
says, such damage is rare, and the tests are not effective at predicting or
preventing who will develop this rare side effect.
So FDA is now recommending that liver enzyme tests be performed before statin
treatment begins and then as needed if there are symptoms of liver damage.
Reports of Memory Loss
FDA has been investigating reports of cognitive impairment from statin use
for several years. The agency has reviewed databases that record reports of bad
reactions to drugs and statin clinical trials that included assessments of
cognitive function.
The reports about memory loss, forgetfulness and confusion span all statin
products and all age groups. Egan says these experiences are rare but that those
affected often report feeling “fuzzy” or unfocused in their thinking.
In general, the symptoms were not serious and were reversible within a few
weeks after the patient stopped using the statin. Some people affected in this
way had been taking the medicine for a day; others had been taking it for
years.
What should patients do if they fear that statin use could be clouding their
thinking? “Talk to your health care professional,” Egan says. “Don’t stop taking
the medication; the consequences to your heart could be far greater.”
The Risk of Diabetes
Diabetes occurs because of defects in the body’s ability to produce or use
insulin—a hormone needed to convert food into energy. If the pancreas doesn't
make enough insulin or if cells do not respond appropriately to insulin, blood
sugar levels in the blood get too high, which can lead to serious health
problems.
A small increased risk of raised blood sugar levels and the development of
Type 2 diabetes have been reported with the use of statins.
“Clearly we think that the heart benefit of statins outweighs this small
increased risk,” says Egan. But what this means for patients taking statins and
the health care professionals prescribing them is that blood-sugar levels may
need to be assessed after instituting statin therapy,” she says.
The Potential for Muscle Damage
Some drugs interact with statins in a way that increases the risk of muscle
injury called myopathy, characterized by unexplained muscle weakness or pain.
Egan explains that some new drugs are broken down (metabolized) through the same
pathways in the body that statins follow. This increases both the amount of
statin in the blood and the risk of muscle injury.
FDA is revising the drug label for Lovastatin to clarify the risk of
myopathy. The label will reflect what drugs should not be taken at the same
time, and the maximum lovastatin dose if it is not possible to avoid use of
those other drugs.
Ezetimibe is a drug that lowers cholesterol levels by blocking its absorption from the gut. The drug is available under the brand name Zetia. Doctors can also prescribe ezetimibe in combination with the statin drug simvastatin. This combination medication is sold under the name Vytorin. Both Zetia and Vytorin have racked up billions of dollars in sales. What a shame, then, that neither of them has been found to have any benefit at all in terms of reducing the risk of heart disease, heart attacks, strokes or risk of death.
Zetia and Vytorin are licenced on the basis of their impact on cholesterol levels. The thinking is that LDL-cholesterol must be bad, so anything that reduces it must be good. However, we know from experience that many things that ‘improve’ cholesterol do not bring broad benefits to health. And besides, it’s simply not good science or medicine to assume that a drug has benefits for health based on its impact on what is known as a ‘surrogate marker’ such as cholesterol. I mean, if arsenic reduced cholesterol it still would not make sense for us to swig back arsenic each day, would it?
This seems like perhaps an extreme analogy, but it should be borne in mind, I think, the Vytorin use has in some studies been associated with an increase (not statistically significant) in the thickening of the arteries compared to simvastatin alone. Also, there was some early evidence the Vytorin increased the risk of death from cancer, though some more recent evidence is said to have allayed fears here.
While some doctors continue to prescribe Zetia and Vytorin it’s difficult (for me) to justify this. There is some evidence that since 2008 (when we saw the first of a few negative studies on Zetia/Vytorin emerge) sales of these drugs have fallen considerably, though profit remains considerable. Make no mistake, though, the fact that Zeta/Vytorin is still on the market and was licensed in the first place is seen by some doctors and researchers as testament to the ability of drug companies to bamboozle regulatory authorities such as the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) in the US. Either that, or the FDA is perhaps putting the needs of drug companies above those of patients.
Against this background, it is interesting to note that Merck (manufacturer of Vytorin) has been for some years attempting to get another similar drug combination passed by the FDA. The drug combines ezetimibe with the statin atorvastatin and has the brand name Liptruzet. As with Vytorin, there exists no evidence that Liptruzet benefits so-called ‘clinical’ outcomes such as incidence of heart disease and stroke.
Now, given all the controversy around Vytorin and the lack of evidence for the benefit of this product, you might imagine the FDA would be keen not to repeat its mistake by granting Liptruzet a licence. Astonishingly, though, the FDA did just this last week.
Now, normally, when a new drug hits the market the press reports parrot the drug company rhetoric about, say, the benefits of the drug and the lives it could save. What is interesting about the press reports on the licensing of Liptruzet is how many of them report scepticism regarding the wisdom of this decision expressed by doctors and researchers. See here for an example.
The piece quotes Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic in the US. According to Dr Nissen, the FDA’s decision to approve the Liptruzet “just doesn’t make any sense.” He is quoted as saying:
I find it astonishing that after all the controversy about ezetimibe the FDA would approve another combination product with a drug that has been on the market for a decade and has not been shown to improve cardiovascular outcomes. It seems like the agency is just tone deaf to the concerns raised by many members of the community about approving drugs with surrogate endpoints like cholesterol without evidence of a benefit for the disease we are truly trying to treat – cardiovascular disease.
And what does Merck have to say for itself? According to spokeswoman Pamela Eisele, Merck is “confident in ezetimibe and in the established relationship between lowering LDL cholesterol and reducing cardiovascular events.”
Merck can be confident all it likes in ezetimibe and its products Zetia, Vytorin and Liptruzet, but the fact is, none of these have been shown to lower ‘cardiovascular events’. My personal opinion is that either Merck is full of idiots or is taking us for idiots. The good news is that the sort of rhetoric spouted by Merck is immediately being recognised by some as having a distinct whiff of b.s. about it.
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Reaqd complete article here.
Cardiologists know that treating depression likely will benefit patients complaining of cardiovascular problems, but likely are completely unaware statin drugs may be a major contributing factor.
According to a report from a National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Working Group, and published simultaneously in Annals of Behavioral Medicine and Psychosomatic Medicine, up to 20 percent of patients with heart disease meet the American Psychiatric Association's criteria for major depression, and identifying better treatments for depression in this population could lead to improved medical, financial and psychosocial outcomes.
At almost the same time Goldstein and others of the Department of Physiology, The Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel, report in Biol Psychiatry 60(5): 491-9 on the involvement of endogenous digitalis-like compounds in depressive disorders. Cholesterol is the major precursor of these endogenous digitalis-like compounds synthesized in our adrenals.
We might have predicted the effect of this new substance in something like heart failure because of the word digitalis but who would have predicted its impact on bipolar disorder and other forms of depressive reactions?
These pleotrophic effects are due to the fact that the cellular effect of this class of drugs is on the sodium, potassium and ATPase cell wall channels in such a way as to induce calcium retention within the cells leading to altered response.
In a brain cell, mania can result from increased membrane excitability and depression from decreased transmitter release and these are only a few of the effects of these endogenous digitalis-like compounds synthesized from cholesterol.
What of the statin drugs with their ability to reduce natural cholesterol levels to values far below normal for the individual? Is there any real doubt that we now have another reason for the association of statin use with depression?
The drug industry proudly hails the ability of Lipitor®, Crestor® and Vytorin® and others to lower blood cholesterol some 40-50%. We already know what this does to the cognitive ability of many people and the erectile function of many others. And now we find another major body system completely dependent upon adequate cholesterol levels.
In addition to this mechanism for altered emotional status we also have others and all are tied to cholesterol availability. The first of these is dolichol associated glycoprotein process for neurohormone synthesis. Every emotion and mood we have are governed by the makeup of sugars and protein fragments, linked like popcorn on a string, to make up our neurohormones.
The second involves our glial cell mediated production of "on-demand" cholesterol synthesis for memory synapses, critical to the development of psychological manifestations. The third has to do with G-protein coupled receptors responsible for neurotransmitter coupling and felt to be the most important mechanism for perception of environmental factor cells.
All three of these are cholesterol dependent and therefore sensitive to statin use. The effects can be so subtle as to be hardly noticeable or so severe as to support the diagnosis of psychotic illness.
How could the designers of lucrative statin drugs two decades ago know of these effects? They obviously could not and now after 20 years of use have some very real economic reasons for not wanting to hear this. One might say that the research community is now documenting adverse reactions to statin drug use that should have been defined and warned of long before marketing.
Duane Graveline MD MPH
Former USAF Flight Surgeon
Former NASA Astronaut
Retired Family Doctor
Updated December 2010
Note added July 18, 2010 - Time Magazine seems to have removed the article titled "Dangers of Statin Drugs" mentioned in this blog post from their web site. Just goes to show that MSM is not really about to give any credence to other than the mainstream view of CVD and statin drug use.
Please read this very good article on the dangers of Atorvastatin, Lovastatin, Rosuvastatin, Simvastatin etc. Also known by more common names Lipitor, Mevacor, Crestor, Zocor, Vytorin. Note this is not a complete list of statin drugs. Cerivistatin or Baycol was pulled because too many people died from taking it (the ultimate side effect).
NOTE: I removed the link to the Time article because they removed the original article which I referred to and substituted another. Here is a link to a blog that has a copy of the article you can read.
More bad news for the makers (and takers) of cholesterol-reducing drug ezetimibe (Zetia)http://www.drbriffa.com
Posted By Dr John Briffa On November 16, 2009
Previously, I have written about the drug combination of simvastatin and ezetimibe (sold as Vytorin in the US). Both of these drugs reduce cholesterol, but through different mechanisms. Taken together, these drugs do do a good job of reducing cholesterol levels And we all know that the lower we get the cholesterol levels down the better, right? Well, actually, results show that Vytorin [1] did not work to halt the progression of the ‘plaques’ that gum up arteries and can precipitate heart attacks and strokes.
And then another thing is that giving people simvastatin and ezetimibe is associated with an increased risk of [2] death due to cancer. This finding was inexplicably waved away by scientists as a [3] chance finding (even though the statistics showed that the finding was very unlikely to be due to chance).
Anyway, this week sees more bad news for the manufacturers of Vytorin and also those who take it. The New England Journal of Medicine has just published a study in which individuals on a statin were additionally treated with ezetimibe or niacin (vitamin B3) over 14 months [1]. All of the individuals in the trial had either been diagnosed with heart disease or were deemed to be at high risk of this condition.
The researchers measured a number of parameters including:
LDL-cholesterol (a form of cholesterol said to be associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease)
HDL-cholesterol (a form of cholesterol said to be associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease)
Triglyceride levels (a form of blood fat said to be associated with higher risk of cardiovascular disease)
Carotid artery intima thickness (the thickness of the wall of the major blood vessel supplying blood to the head – increased thickness is generally taken as a sign of worsening cardiovascular disease risk)
In the group taking a statin and ezetimibe, LDL, HDL and triglyceride levels went down.
In the group taking a statin and niacin, LDL and triglyceride levels went down, and HDL levels went up.
On paper, at this point, the group taking the niacin and statin fared better. However, more important than these results were those relating to the carotid artery intima thickness. Guess what? The group taking the niacin did better than the group taking ezetimibe on this score too.
One other outcome the researchers kept tabs on was ‘major cardiovascular events’ such as heart attacks and strokes. Here again, the niacin group fared better – 1 per cent of them had such an event compared to 5 per cent in the group taking ezetimibe.
The New York Times reports [4] here that Dr Peter Kim, the president of Merck Research Laboratories (makers of ezetimibe) claimed that the study was limited because it did not compare the groups of patients taking a statin and a second drug to a placebo group. He also claims that a drug’s ability to improve artery-wall thickness has not been proved to automatically correlate with a reduction in heart attacks. Moreover he stated that ezetimibe lowers bad cholesterol and lowering bad cholesterol is a “known good”.
Ezetimibe has been licenced on the basis of its ability to reduce LDL-cholesterol – something that is referred to as a ‘surrogate marker’. So, Merck it seems that Merck is happy for its drug to be sold and promoted on the basis of one surrogate marker (reduced cholesterol), but none-too-keen for its drug to be criticised on the basis of another surrogate measure (carotid artery intima thickness).
Dr Kim also describes a reduction in bad (LDL) cholesterol as a “known good”. However, the new England Journal of Medicine study found that lower levels of LDL cholesterol were actually associated with an increase in carotid artery intima thickness. And never mind this, do we really think that just because something reduces LDL cholesterol levels, that has to be a good thing. I mean, if arsenic and cyanide were found to reduce LDL cholesterol levels, would that mean we should all be taking arsenic and cyanide every day?
The New York Times article also quotes Dr James Stein, professor at the University of Wisconsin medical school, who points out that as far as ezetimibe is concerned, “there is not a shred of evidence that it does anything good for blood vessels or heart disease.”
References:
1. Taylor AJ, et al. Extended-Release Niacin or Ezetimibe and Carotid Intima–Media Thickness NEJM 15th November 2009 [epub ahead of print]
Article printed from Dr Briffa’s Blog: http://www.drbriffa.com
URL to article: http://www.drbriffa.com/blog/2009/11/16/more-bad-news-for-the-makers-and-takers-of-cholesterol-reducing-drug-ezetimibe-zetia/
URLs in this post: [1] did not work: http://www.drbriffa.com/blog/2008/01/28/trial-results-forced-out-of-drug-company-support-the-concept -that-cholesterol-may-not-cause-cardiovascular-disease/
[2] death due to cancer: http://www.drbriffa.com/blog/2008/07/23/cholesterol-lowering-combination-found-to-have-limited-benef it-again-and-now-is-linked-with-increased-risk-of-cancer/
In his popular newsletter, Dr. Mercola provides this analysis of the ubiquitous, cure all statin drug and the stance by the Mayo clinic.
What You Need to Know About Cholesterol in Order to Understand the Dangers of Statins
Statin drugs work by preventing the formation of cholesterol, and reduce LDL cholesterol, which is considered the "bad" cholesterol.
There is no argument that these drugs do work very well at lowering your cholesterol levels. However, was has not been proven is that they significantly lower your risk of dying from heart disease. In no way, shape or form, do they treat the cause of your problem. They are nothing more than a toxic band-aid.
HDL (high density lipoprotein) and LDL (low density lipoprotein) are actually proteins that transport the cholesterol to and from your tissues.
Cholesterol in turn is a precursor to steroid hormones. For example, you can’t make testosterone or estrogen, cortisol, DHEA or pregnenolone, or a multitude of other steroid hormones that are necessary for health, without cholesterol.
Even more importantly, your cells cannot regenerate their membranes without it. The reason you have LDL to begin with is to transport the cholesterol to the tissues in order to make new cells and repair damaged ones.
However, there are different sizes of LDL particles and it’s the LDL particle size that is relevant, and statins do not modulate the size of the particles. Unfortunately, most people don’t know about that part, and very rarely, if ever, get tested for particle size.
The particles are sticky, so very small LDL’s can easily get stuck in different areas, and the build-up eventually causes inflammation and damage.
The only way to make sure your LDL particles are large enough to not cause damage is through your diet. In fact, it’s one of the major functions of insulin.
Conveniently enough, a healthy diet is also the answer for type 2 diabetes, so by focusing on what you eat, you’re treating both your diabetes and your cholesterol levels, and reducing your associated risk of heart disease.
If you eat properly, which is really the only known good way to regulate LDL particle size, then it does the right thing; it takes the cholesterol to your tissues, the HDL takes it back to your liver, and no plaque is formed.
The second thing you need to know is that statins work by reducing the enzyme that causes your liver to make cholesterol when it is stimulated by high insulin levels.
Again, you can achieve the same, or better, result by simply reducing your insulin levels by eliminating sugar and most grains, which is also what you need to do to successfully address type 2 diabetes.
Read the complete article here. Thank you Dr Mercols for a clear, concise explanation.
Having trouble dealing with your doctor about cholesterol and statin side effects?
Join this Yahoo Group and see how others handle it and read about their experiences.
Here's what they say:
Stopped Our Statinsis for those experiencing AE's (adverse effects) to statins: Advicor(Niacin Extended-Release & Lovastatin), NEW ~ Caduet (Lipitor & Norvasc), Crestor(Rosuvastatin),Lipitor(Atorvastatin),Lescol(Fluvastatin), Mevacor(Lovastatin), Pravachol(Pravastatin), Zocor(Simvastatin),Vytorin(Ezetimibe-Simvastatin) & Baycol(Cerivastatin). Baycol, causing over 100 deaths & 11,000 cases of severe side effects, was removed from the market 8/01.
Merck & Co of Vioxx fame is on the carpet again with their Vytorin (simvastatin or Zocor plus ezemitibe) which is suppose to give cholesterol a double whammy and may do just that but the tradeoff seems to be increased risk of prostate, gastrointestinal, and skin cancer.
So... would you rather have that dreaded 'high cholesterol' or try your luck with cancer?
See this link to a Reuters article and also read this article in Natural News where they state that Merck's belatedly released data "... reveals a whopping 50% increase in cancer risk compared to patients taking a placebo! Hilariously, Merck says the difference is due to "chance." Isn't it funny how all the results they WANT to see in clinical trials are due to their drugs, but all the results they DON'T want to see are due to "chance?"
Also pay attention to Natural News list of related articles.
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) editorial article published September 2, 2008 bears the title "Ezetimibe and Cancer — An Uncertain Association". You might ask 'what the heck is Ezetimibe?' It is another one of those drugs used to lower serum cholesterol levels frequently in conjunction or parallel with a statin drug. Of late it has actually been combined into the same pill with Simvastatin also known as Zocor and the combination called Vytorin.
Also in the above mentioned issue of NEJM they published the results of the SEAS trial (Simvastatin and Ezetimibe in Aortic Stenosis). "In the trial, a combination of simvastatin and ezetimibe (Vytorin) was compared with placebo with respect to the incidence of cardiovascular events in older people with aortic-valve stenosis. The treatment had no impact on the progression of aortic stenosis or on cardiovascular clinical events in general, ..."
Now note the following from the NEJM editorial....
"There was, however, an unexpected finding in the trial. An excess of incident cancers was observed in the simvastatin–ezetimibe group, with 105 in that group as compared with 70 in the placebo group (P=0.01). There was an increase in the incidence of a variety of cancers, including prostate, gastrointestinal, and skin cancers. Also, deaths from cancer were more frequent in the active-treatment group (39 deaths, vs. 23 in the placebo group), ..."
WOW!
Finally the editorial says ...
"Ezetimibe interferes with the gastrointestinal absorption not only of cholesterol, but also of other molecular entities that could conceivably affect the growth of cancer cells. The fact that the combined data from all three trials showed an increase in cancer mortality with ezetimibe should not be assumed to be a chance finding until further data are in. It is appropriate that SHARP and IMPROVE-IT continue. Careful follow-up of the patients in these trials will be essential, and other existing data sets on ezetimibe-treated patients should be analyzed for cancer end points. The Food and Drug Administration has already announced that during the next few months it will conduct its own analysis of the potential cancer hazard of ezetimibe."
Note: In the above quotes from the NEJM editorial the 'bolded' text was emphasis added my me and did not occur in the original article which you can read in its entirety here. You can also read results of the (SEAS) trial here.
See also this Natural News article on the same subject.
Now a bit of personal history as related to the above information and also cited in this blog over one year ago ( see it here).
I was on cholesterol lowering statins for roughly 20 years beginning in the mid 1980s.
In 1994 (with low cholesterol) I had a heart attack resulting in open heart surgery.
P.S. Four subsequent heart attacks (most recent June 2006), three requiring stents - all while having well below 'their recommended' serum cholesterol readings. (added this item Oct 8, 2007)
In 2003 I had a fist sized gastrointestinal cancerous tumor removed along with about 9 inches of my small intestine.
I've had one basal cell carcinoma (skin cancer) surgically removed about 3 years ago.
I personally have no data to tie these events in my life together. (I might change this statement as this connection is further explored)
I feel good now - like none of the above had happened. It almost seems surreal. But I've had four subsequent heart attacks - three with stents and there is some possibility that the cancer could reappear.
And a piece of info not included in the above is that for a significant length of time while taking statin drugs to lower my cholesterol and thus presumable reduce chances of heart attack, I was also taking Ezetimbe. All that before the gastrointestional cancer and basal cell carcinoma (skin cancer) were discovered and treated seemingly successfully.
A Medscape Today article just received (Aug 30, 2008) bears the heading: "FDA Looking Into Vytorin and Cancer Risk, but Interim Analysis Reassuring for Patients to Continue With Medication"
My previous blog entry refers to a NewsTarget article based on the Canadian Medical Association Journal article which states under 'Background' in the Abstract that "The risk association between low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and cancer remains controversial and largely unexplored for people not receiving statin therapy."
Now my interest is a bit more than academic. My post exactly one year ago Aug 30, 2007 (look it up) is titled "Cholesterol lowering statin drugs and Cancer! and summarizes some of my history, medically speaking, that puts me right in the middle of this topic having been a long time statin user to lower my cholesterol and during that "on statin" period of my life had 5 heart attacks and cancer.
In my humble opinion it is about time that this topic gets study and press to get it out in the open and before the public. Public exposure to this cannot hurt, only help individuals to take a proactive involvment in their own health issues. I Have!
NewsTarget author Byron J. Richards, a Board-Certified Clinical Nutritionist writes an article about the link between statin induced low cholesterol and cancer. His first paragraph opens this way...
"In a major shot fired across the bow of the statin marketing machine, the levels of LDL cholesterol that are the artificial targets of "health" promoted by the American Heart Association (AHA) are now found to be associated with a significant increased risk of cancer and death."
He further says...
"The Vytorin fraud has pointed out quite clearly that lowering LDL cholesterol to very low levels does not reduce cardiovascular disease. Another Vytorin study also shows doing so increases cancer risk by 64%. The new study paints the clear picture that lowering LDL too low actually increases the rate of death from any cause. This new study also points out the statistical shenanigans that the statin industry uses to hide the actual risks of these drugs in the studies that have been published."
If you are, or have been, a statin drug user (Zocor, Lipitor, Vytorin, Crestor, Mevacor, Baycol, etc.) or just want to be up to date on side effects of this ubiquitious medication some tout with evangelistic fervor as though it is the magic bullet to solve coronary artery disease, cardio vascular disease, atherosclerosis and the like, you'll be interested in what this former USAF Flight Surgeon and Former NASA Astronaut has to say. His "Statin Drugs Side Effects" book is on my shelf and has worn pages from re-reads. He hasn't stopped however with the publication of the book but continues to research this topic. Read his book and read the many articles available on his web site - http://www.spacedoc.net . I also added a link from his last newsletter to "Credible Evidence" about Rhabdomyolysis. Good heavens what is that? I can't even say it!
Well, Wikipedia explains it this way"Rhabdomyolysis is the rapid breakdown of skeletal muscle tissue due to traumatic injury, either mechanical, physical or chemical."
Of particular interest in that definition pertinent to this discussion is the word 'chemical' because I'm dealing here with "Statin Associated Rhabdomyolysis". Statins are a group of chemicals primarily used to reduce c... eh... cho.... oops! hard to say the word many near to me only refer to as the "C" word ... chol... er... - Oh well see the right side panel for many references to it.
"Drugs and Toxins A large range of drugs and toxins have been seen to cause rhabdomyolysis.... Some drugs appear to have a direct toxic action on skeletal muscle when given systemically. These include cholesterol lowering drugs (clofibrate, gemfibrozil, HMG CoA reductase inhibitors), emetine (ipecac), zidovudine (AZT), vincristine, and epsilon-aminocaproic acid."
Wow that is getting pretty technical and hard to understand ( for me at least ). I'll zero in a bit more with the following explanation of a cause of Rhab...."A large range of drugs ... have been seen to cause rhabdomyolysis.... Some drugs appear to have a direct toxic action on skeletal muscle.... These include cholesterol lowering drugs (.... HMG CoA reductase inhibitors), ...."
Well the 'HMG CoA reductase inhibitor' is a technical way of saying STATINS! Statin drugs are a significant cause of rhabdomyolysis.
You might ask, "Why do I care enough about all of this to take the time to blog about it?" I dare you to ask, cuz I might just tell you. But I will say here that is more than just a intellectual curiosity. Being a twenty year or so user of HMG CoA reductase inhibitors (statin drugs), including Baycol which resulted in liver failure and death to around 100 people, and was taken off the market by the FDA in 2001 just after I began taking it, and putting up with drug induced side effect - myopathy (of which rhabdomyolysis is the most severe form) most of those 20 years, I ask you "Why shouldn't I be interested?"
Maybe in some small way this blog, which is mainly about the "C" word and related health stuff with an occasional 'out-of-the-ball-park' other topic thrown in for whatever reason, will be stumbled upon by someone and my hope is that they will be helped.
